Chapter Text
Max was the first to wake up, probably because he went to sleep so early, as he usually is the last to rise. It felt strange to wake up to total darkness. He turned on his trusty flashlight and had a look around. Ord was sleeping soundly, so he exited their tent. He wanted to see what Emmy was up to, so he went over to their brightly colored tent, and peeked in. Emmy herself was almost awake, and heard the sound of Max approaching and opening the entrance to their tent. She smiled, got her flashlight, rose quietly, and left the tent to greet Max.
Max gave a big yawn, stretching his blue arms above his head. He retracted his arms and started shivering. "Brrr ... it's so cold." The temperature was no different than when he had retired, but humans naturally feel colder while waking up. "Why don't you get your pants." Emmy softly told Max. Max liked the idea, and went back to his tent. While searching the tent floor for his discarded jeans, he tripped and fell onto Ord's belly. His belly was soft and it didn't hurt (actually, it felt pretty good), but Ord didn't agree. He opened his sleepy eyes and said "Owww. What was that for, Max?" in a somewhat submissive voice. Max felt sorry and told Ord it was an accident. He then spotted his pants. Ord was using them to prop up his pillow a little higher. "Can I have my pants?" Max asked? "Sure thing, little buddy." Ord said as he got up, and then helped Max get into them. While Max was fixing up the jammy legs that were getting buched together underneath his jeans, Ord zipped and buttoned his friend's jeans. The extra tightness from them being over his jammies meant there was no need for the belt, so Ord placed it in Max's backpack. Max finished fixing up his legs, and he liked how he felt. He was quite a bit warmer, especially over his sensitive privates. Ord thought he looked cute, the brown jeans and blue jammies making a nice combination.
Pretty soon everyone was awake and gathered outside, a sleepy eyed Enrique and Cassie being the last two to get up. Zak and Wheezie, who had been sleeping outside, seemed especially eager to get going. "The sooner we break camp, the sooner we get home." was all that was on his mind. As soon as Cassie had finished packing up the blankets and stuff inside the tent, Zak folded up the tent, forcing it back into a small bundle against its wishes, tying it down, and handing it to Cassie for storage. He was so eager that Cassie almost didn't get out, her tail getting stuck in the tent as Zak folded it while she was stepping out.
Meanwhile, Max cleaned up the contents of their tent. Once he was finished and had walked up to Ord's side, Ord and Max took apart their large tent, Ord doing the heavy labor and Max folding and putting stuff away. The two had become so much closer over the last several days, and it showed in their teamwork.
Enrique studied his map, while Emmy wrote the log entry for Cassie: "Day 1, 6:58, 136.7 kPa, still in the same long and narrow passageway. Cassie, Enrique, and I found the rainbow crystals last night. We collected 11 beatiful specimens. All of us, except for a worn-out Zak and Wheezie, had plenty of evening fun and a good night's sleep. Zak is especially eager to leave, and Wheezie doesn't seem to be putting up any resistance." Enrique plotted out a path to the surface. They weren't going to go back the way they came, because he deemed it too dangerous. Instead, they would travel through a rather circuitous route that avoided any vertical passages, though it was quite a bit longer.
With Enrique and Cassie in the lead, the seven friends set out. They travelled to the far end of the fault in which they had camped, and passed through a small opening. The rock on the other side was a pale yellow-white, contrasting sharply with the black rock they had been in up until now. The air was also getting damp and cool. After travelling about five hundred paces, Enrique could hear the sound of water, which didn't make sense, as his barometer read 136.9 kPa, even deeper than where they had camped and far from the surface. As the party progressed towards the sound of the water, Emmy explained how the caves they were in were made of limestone and that water can carve out underground rivers through this rock. A few hundred paces farther, they reached an underground river. It had carved itself a nice, wide passage, with ample room on the rocky banks for the friends to walk along. It was cold, the water being close to the freezing point and chilling the air around them, but there was no wind and the human kids were adequately dressed, especially now that they were moving and burning energy.
They walked upstream. The sound of the gurgling water was quite relaxing, and both the dragons and the humans would have felt like taking a long, refreshing dip and cleaning their bodies, if the water weren't so cold.
They continued hiking for about four hours, walking along smooth rock banks where the river moved slowly, and up rougher talus slopes consisting of cobbles or even boulders in the steeper sections. By this point, most of party was getting tired. Enrique and Zak felt like continuing, but they were outvoted by the other five. They found a spot with a broad, flat limestone bank and sat down for a picnic. Enrique and Max liked the PB&J sandwiches. Emmy ate what was left of their rather stale baguette. Ord didn't have much to eat, having finished is massive stash of dragonberries the day before. Cassie and Zak and Wheezie ate their dragonberries, having been more judicious in their rationing. Enrique took his measurement, reading 130.8 kPa, a marked improvement though still a ways to go.
As they were getting up, Ord noticed that Max looked quite tired. "You okay, buddy." he asked, a hint of concern in his voice. "Nah, I'm okay. Just my legs are tired" "You want to ride in my horde?" asked Ord kindly. "Would I? I'd love to." Max said, as he lifted his arms up to let Ord grab him. Ord picked up Max and placed him carefully in his horde, which was like a kangaroo's pouch, only larger, and used for storage instead of child-rearing. Only his head was sticking out, with the rest of his body snugly tucked away in the pouch, his body heat contibuting a bit to keeping Ord warm, and Ord keeping Max cozily warm. Ord also liked how it felt whenever Max shifted around and he definitely liked being this close to his friend.
The party resumed their travels, moving a little faster than the 2 km/h that they had been averaging up until then, as Max wasn't slowing them down anymore. This segment was very straight, rising along at a steady 10-degree or so incline for many kilometres. Emmy peeked a glance at Enrique's map and figured out that they were travelling along an old strike-slip fault, and the river had used the natural crack in the earth to help it form its course. After about an hour of constant climbing, Emmy's legs were starting to give out. Cassie's horde was to small to do like Ord and Max had done, but Cassie did let Emmy ride her in the usual way, Emmy giving Cassie a kiss as soon as she mounted and patting her on the head as her way of saying thanks. Not even half an hour later Enrique was spent too. Fearing a repeat incident (and wanting to spend more time with his best friends), he asked Cassie if there was any room left. Cassie was okay with the idea of two riders, and Enrique climbed on Cassie and sat right behind her, hit crotch up against her rear.
Enrique did have the urge to play around with Emmy, but given that both were exhausted and Cassie was carrying them, they decided to do so another time; besides, the party was still relying on Enrique to navigate, and he couldn't do that if his eyes were pushed up against Emmy's cute, fuzzy, red jammy pants. Ahh, what was he thinking. He needed to keep his mind off of Emmy. Emmy could feel Enrique's tension, and it did bother her a bit, but this time Enrique came up with the good idea: he placed the map book on Emmy's lap, grabbed Emmy around her chest and waist, and leaned over her shoulders. The way to get rid of the tension was to give in. He could softly and moderately pleasure her while doing his navigating at the same time, especially since Emmy was there to help him.
While Enrique was busy kissing Emmy's neck and gently rubbing her red, jammy-covered chest and blue, denim-covered groin, the dragons continued walking. They made excellent time. In the two hours that they followed the straight river, they progressed about ten kilometres forward and 1,500 metres upwards. Max was enjoying the scenery, his head still sticking out of Ord's horde. Enrique and Emmy were far more distracted with themselves than the scenery, but they kept enough control over themselves to do their jobs. The pressure was now 97.3 kPa and the corresponding point on the map was almost at the entrance to the cave.
The entrance consisted of a short vertical cylinder, about 10 metres in height. Water fell in via a small waterfall, and it swirled around in the center before exiting via the river they had been following all day long. The sun was beautiful and so bright that they were blinded for a moment as their eyes adjusted from the darkness of the caves. Enrique and Emmy stopped what they were doing. The three dragons flew up and out of the hole.
They were amazed at what they saw. They were about halfway up what looked like Snowy Summit. Meltwater was pouring into the hole and feeding the river, which explained why it was so cold. The dragons landed on the packed snow nearby and let the humans off. It felt good to be on the surface again after so long. They felt their first breeze in days as the cold air cut through the humans' night clothes. Max curled back into Ord's pouch for warmth while Enrique and Emmy shivered a bit and hugged themselves to stay warm.
Enrique got onto Zak and Wheezie, Emmy remounted Cassie, and they then took off for the School in the Sky. They were taken aback by how far they had travelled. Snowy Summit and the Stickleback Mountains were in opposite directions from the School in the Sky, and they had travelled that entire distance underground.
The air rapidly warmed as they left the cold mountain and descended. After about 15 minutes of effortless flying, they arrived and Questzal was there to greet them. "Hola, niños." he greeted them. "Ord and Cassie, I see you've succeeded. I'm very proud of you." They both wondered how Quetzel knew they had the crystals as Emmy took them from her backpack and handed four of the crystals to Quetzel. "Thank you very much.", having forgotten about his original request. "I see that you have found what you were looking for." Ord and Cassie were still perplexed. Max, who was still in Ord's horde, came out and gave him a hug, and Ord realized what Quetzel meant. "Oh, yes, Max and I did find what we're looking for." said Ord, picking up his buddy and giving him a big Ord-sized hug in return as Emmy added in a "definitely". Cassie said "And I found what I was looking for ... my best buddies Enrique and Emmy." as she hugged both of them warmly.
Zak and Wheezie felt left out and walked up to Quetzel, who replied "I'm sorry you didn't find what you were looking for. Next time, try to be friends with each other." Neither were too happy with these words of wisdom, but they were so tired that they couldn't be bothered with any snarky remarks, instead leaving for their knuckerhole without saying any goodbyes. It just hadn't been their trip.
Quetzel then looked at the rainbow crystals that he had been given, and thanked the children. "These will prove most helpful in my studies." he told them, examing their colors under the light of the sun. Emmy then handed him another two crystals, saying "These are for Zak and Wheezie. I hope it'll help cheer them up."
Cassie, Ord, and Quetzel said their goodbyes to Emmy, Max, and Enrique. Even knowing that they would see each other tomorrow, it felt like such a long time to stay away from their friends. The three humans then recited the rhyme, and returned home. It was still morning back in Emmy and Max's house, giving them more than enough time for a long, hard-earned nap.
PS: Zak and Wheezie did get over their funk of a mood after a long nap away from the cave, and the crystals did cheer up Wheezie. Wheezie was cafeful to be nice to Zak, and that cheered him up to.